Ben McLemore

#1
Nice blurb here about the kid. He's really turning into a player right before our eyes.

If you're able to peer through DeMarcus Cousins' illness-related absence, Rudy Gay's growth into a steady second star, Darren Collison's hot start to the season and, of course, Mike Malone's unceremonious dismissal, you just might notice how well Ben McLemore's been playing for the Sacramento Kings.

No longer does McLemore brick shots or misread situations with such alarming frequency. Instead, he looks far more like the athletic sharpshooter the Kings thought they were getting when they drafted him out of Kansas with the No. 7 pick in 2013. He's knocked down a sturdy 41.2 percent of his 4.3 three-pointers per game to date.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-for-the-maligned-2013-nba-draft-class/page/9
 
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#2
I've said it before, but I am so impressed by Ben's growth. Loved the pick coming out of Kansas and saw his potential, but after his last season I finally gave into the thinking that he may just not have what it takes.

I'm happy to have been proven wrong. Not only is his shot going in from behind the arc, his ability to make moves off the dribble and penetrate the paint have been such a drastic improvements. Its somewhat shocking, actually. I used to just cringe when he'd catch the ball and do anything more than a quick catch and shoot. Now I keep finding myself on the edge of my seat, for all the right reasons, waiting to see how he surprises me next.

Then you sprinkle in his huge jump in defense...

Color me excited.
 
#4
Ben has been a real bright spot and is definitely looking like the potential that people talked about him having out of Kansas. His handle has definitely improved (still needs work) as well as his willingness to take the ball to the basket. Confidence in his shot has improved and as we know the form was always there. I have seen him make some nice passes and I think as he continues to improve his handle we will see more assists from him. As we know his defense has also vastly improved to where he went from being one of the worst SG defenders in the league last year to probably in the Top-12 or so now.

I've said it a few times lately, going forward for this team to really become anything in the future I think Ben needs to become the team's second best player. I just see him having more of a winner's mentality than Rudy and if Ben continues to improve it would be great if he surpassed Rudy as the 2nd best player on the team. Obviously a long way to go for that to happen but the signs are there if he continues to improve.

Finally as much crap as the front office has taken for the Malone firing (and rightfully so, Malone is one of the reasons Ben has improved)........drafting Ben McLemore is one of the things they got right. So many of the "experts" on here trashed them for drafting McLemore and for how excited they were when Ben fell into their lap. The so called "experts" then spent all of last year (and this year with Nik Stauskas) saying "I told you so......Ben is a Bust".

Funny what a year's time and just a tiny bit of "wait and see" can do for a player. Ben McLemore is a great example of why you never give up on a rookie in their first season and he's also a great example of why you don't blame a GM for a failed draft pick based entirely on the player's rookie season.
 
#5
I noticed that they ran a lot of plays for Ben last night. Gave him the ball off of multiple screens. Even let him initiate the offense. I mentioned it weeks ago that if we want to see Ben grow, you have to ASK him to do more. You can't just give it to him a couple times a game in the corner and hope he does something. He needs to be actively involved in the game plan or his passive nature takes hold. Once he got involved this game he turned it up a notch. Finger rolls.....splitting double teams( yeah they doubled him)....ankle breaking cross overs....Monta -esque drives to the hole. I mean, the whole package is there waiting to be exploited. Fun to see.
 
#7
I noticed that they ran a lot of plays for Ben last night. Gave him the ball off of multiple screens. Even let him initiate the offense. I mentioned it weeks ago that if we want to see Ben grow, you have to ASK him to do more. You can't just give it to him a couple times a game in the corner and hope he does something. He needs to be actively involved in the game plan or his passive nature takes hold. Once he got involved this game he turned it up a notch. Finger rolls.....splitting double teams( yeah they doubled him)....ankle breaking cross overs....Monta -esque drives to the hole. I mean, the whole package is there waiting to be exploited. Fun to see.
I think this was Ben's best scoring game in the NBA. He showed us a little bit of everything he could do.. it was amazing. Last night's highlights!

 
#8
Get the kid more touches and reward him for his increased shooting percentage and defensive performance. Why do we waste high draft picks on guys who actually can / do contribute but we hinder how successful they will / can be because our coaching and allowance of others poor shot selections?
 
#9
Everyone who trashed Ben has some crow to eat. I'm so happy to see Mclemore's improvement this season and think he needs to have more plays drawn up for him. Even though he struggled last season if you squinted your eyes enough you could see there was a player under all those shaky shaky games. Maybe Ben is the reason Malone was against a Rudy extension (if that even true) but either way he's our rising star and I hope the front office pulls their head out of their ass to have this team on track again.

 
#10
Everyone who trashed Ben has some crow to eat. I'm so happy to see Mclemore's improvement this season and think he needs to have more plays drawn up for him. Even though he struggled last season if you squinted your eyes enough you could see there was a player under all those shaky shaky games. Maybe Ben is the reason Malone was against a Rudy extension (if that even true) but either way he's our rising star and I hope the front office pulls their head out of their ass to have this team on track again.

I wish there was a "Love" button for this!
 

CruzDude

Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
#11
This morning Blake Ellington tweeted the best truism's ever on the four Kings need to do on the floor and I agree 100%:

1. Less dribbling from Rudy
2. Trust McLemore
3. Help each other on defense
4. Have fun again
 
#12
This morning Blake Ellington tweeted the best truism's ever on the four Kings need to do on the floor and I agree 100%:

1. Less dribbling from Rudy
2. Trust McLemore
3. Help each other on defense
4. Have fun again
3 of these problems were created with the malone firing and you can make the case for #2 also
 
#13
This morning Blake Ellington tweeted the best truism's ever on the four Kings need to do on the floor and I agree 100%:

1. Less dribbling from Rudy
2. Trust McLemore
3. Help each other on defense
4. Have fun again
#1 and #2 go almost hand in hand. Rudy treats Ben almost like competition who is trying to take his shots (hence the reason why he ignores him)

Collison doesn't exactly look for Ben either. Most of the fans have noticed Ben's improvement and Michael Malone commented on it several times before he was fired.........but oddly enough I don't get the feeling that most of Ben's teammates realize how much he has improved......either that or they do know and they just don't want to give up shots to him.

That's the sign of a team without strong leadership (Malone) though. When players avoid passing the ball to the young up-and-coming talent like Ben because he's "competition" for shots that's a bad sign.
 
#14
So does it hurt Ben's confidence more when he is highly effective but underutilized (this year) or when he is less effective and over-utilized (last year)...?
 
#15
Everyone who trashed Ben has some crow to eat. I'm so happy to see Mclemore's improvement this season and think he needs to have more plays drawn up for him. Even though he struggled last season if you squinted your eyes enough you could see there was a player under all those shaky shaky games. Maybe Ben is the reason Malone was against a Rudy extension (if that even true) but either way he's our rising star and I hope the front office pulls their head out of their ass to have this team on track again.

i'm one of those trashing him last year :D

his leap in the second season especially in the defense department has been a joy to watch. hope he gets someone to help him further his development in that department. he could be really special if he reaches his potential.
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#16
We just need to give Ben the ultimate green light now that half the team has quit, all that's left in this season is to improve Ben the coaching stuff has to do something to get him shots I don't care if they are semi contested just shot it Ben. Mark Jackson did a similar thing for Klay Thomspon in his 2nd season and look where Klay is at now.
 
#17
So does it hurt Ben's confidence more when he is highly effective but underutilized (this year) or when he is less effective and over-utilized (last year)...?
Ben never stops playing hard whether his teammates pass to him or not. Once a player knows he can compete at this level, it is more about frustration than confidence. Let's just hope Ben doesn't stop giving maximum effort. That would be the sign that this turmoil and selfishness has gotten to him.
 
#18
Everyone who trashed Ben has some crow to eat. I'm so happy to see Mclemore's improvement this season and think he needs to have more plays drawn up for him. Even though he struggled last season if you squinted your eyes enough you could see there was a player under all those shaky shaky games. Maybe Ben is the reason Malone was against a Rudy extension (if that even true) but either way he's our rising star and I hope the front office pulls their head out of their ass to have this team on track again.

I'll eat crow. I was ready to trade him at any point last season and this year in summer league/preseason. But he's definitely proved me wrong. If he ever gets ball handling down in the future, he's going to be a force.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#21
A lot in the last few months, but this is the sort of game he needs to string together a few times. He's really auditioning for a job here for a new coach. Has 30 games, if he plays like he did in Jan, he could legitimately be replaced. If he plays like this, then no way and its one less hole going forward.
 
#24
There was a slow motion of his three pointer he made tonight. Looks jist like Ray Allen no joke. Not saying he is going to be as good but they have very similar releases.
 
#25
Yeah - why hasn't he had more of these kind of games?

Tonight was very nice - his defense sure does make his shooting the icing on the cake.
On the other hand, why does he turn the ball over so much on the inbounds plays?

Actually, the better question is - why does he inbound the ball so much?
 
#28
I'm expecting another big jump next season. Someting like 16-17 ppg 42% 3pt 47% FG 85% FT with continued improvement in defense and overall improvement with stuff like ball handling, court awareness etc.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#29
I'm expecting another big jump next season. Someting like 16-17 ppg 42% 3pt 47% FG 85% FT with continued improvement in defense and overall improvement with stuff like ball handling, court awareness etc.
Its possible. We have to see how he responds here. People do have short memories in Ben's case because they want him to succeed. But he's been struggling badly. Even tonight you check him out and its 11pts in the first quarter, 5 afterwards, along with 4 TOs, no rebs, no ast... I was impressed oto early, but we always seem to forget all the empty when we are talking about him.

I really do think this is one big long audition for him. Not a doubt in my mind we are aiming for the playoffs for next year, so he's got to step froward now in these last 30 games for Karl and show he can be a playoff shooting guard for us next season. if he does, I think there's entirely too much good will for us to consider moving him. But he needs to be bare minimum solid every night.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#30
If you want to trade him you'd have to strongly pitch him to teams in the playoffs v memphis. He always does a solid job v them.
People tend to forget this important fact because they have this image of whiner JT from his first couple of seasons but the man has become one of the best post defenders in the NBA. He's essentially become the player Geoff Petrie tried to get when he hired Chuck Hayes.

To win a playoff series against the Memphises and Chicagos of the world, you need a player like JT.